WinXP lags then BSOD then crash; errors on boot

I've been having slowdown and BSOD issues on the last few days. The first time it happened was on a previous Windows installation. It was running very sluggish at times, or more accurately, it'd suddenly lag, and sometimes that'd lead to a BSOD. I do not have the minidump from that installation; I'm not really a computer person so I didn't even know minidumps existed before I did some research.

I also formatted my HDD since the computer was working very poorly at the time - this seemed to have fixed it at first but then the booting issues and the BSOD came back the next day.

The lag has been around for a while. It's working as fast as it should but then it'll suddenly get sluggish and laggy when I try to open my browser, or play a video on youtube or MPC, or sometimes during a game (not graphics intensive); and then it goes back to normal. In other words, I get lag spikes. They never culminated in BSODs before last Tuesday, though. Speedfan temperatures look fine during these lag spikes.

I ran memtest and fixed my paging file as the sticky advised. I also cleaned the computer inside. Booting is still slow, and computer still lags at times.

Attached Files:

The minidump just about confirms the error messages that you have listed. Your hard drive is failing. One should never jump to a rapid conclusion so just to confirm it you should run the diagnostics as per the guide below.

Get everything backed up before the drive gets any worse.

Identify the make of your hard drive and then use one of the links below to get the manufacturers diagnostic for ISO CD. Burn the image file to a CD, boot the PC with the disc in the drive and run the diagnostics. You first need to set the CD drive to 1st in the boot order in the Bios setup.

If you do not have an image burner use this free software to make the CD.

Please provide the model number of your drive if it is Toshiba Fujitsu for further instructions, this does not run on Windows 7. I would suggest the use of the diagnostics from the Seagate link as this will work on all makes of drive and on any OS.

I couldn't get the diagnostic tool from the manufacturer's website to work (some error message - "unable to locate license agreement file dlglice.txt", appears to be a fairly common problem), so instead I used ultimatebootcd which comes with that same tool, and it worked fine.

A couple hours ago I ran both the quick and extended tests and it detected no errors.

And just now I spent a good 10-15 minutes dealing with the already mentioned error messages before I could get my machine to boot.

It seems like it'll boot with no problem once it's already on (for example, if I were to reboot it right now). But when it's been off for a while, it's hell for it to boot again. This is odd.

You did download the diagnostics for DOS (CD)? I have had many people use this with no problem. Did you then burn the ISO image to a CD with image burning software not just by burning it as a file. The CD you used may well be an older version and not specific to your model of drive. You could even try to download the version for Windows but the results won't be as accurate. Seeing what is in the minidump I am amazed it past any test.

Reseat all the connections on the drive and try running with just one memory stick fitted. If the problem persists then swap the memory. I know you have tested the memory with Memtest but it can miss minor faults, using one stick at a time is far more conclusive.

There are two more tests that can be done from within windows.

1. Press Start > type cmd in the search box and enter. At that c: prompt, type chkdsk /r exactly as written here with the gap before the slash, then hit Enter.

2.You will then see a message "Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)"

Type Y for yes, and press enter. Then reboot the computer into normal mode. Chkdsk will start when Windows begins loading again. Let all 5 phases run and don't use or turn off the computer. (The chkdsk process may take an hour or more to finish.)

3.Chkdsk finds any corrupted files that are causing the problem and fixes them. Read the results of each phase as it finishes. During the final phase, it will notify you if it finds any corrupted files. It also checks for bad blocks on the drive surface.
4.When the Check Disk is done, it will finish loading Windows.

Also try typing sfc /scannow in the Run box and hit enter, watch for the results.

Yeah. I did get the DOS CD one, latest version as well, for my specific model (WD5000AAKS). And burned the ISO. But apparently that error message is a (somewhat) common problem. I found a number of people with it by googling the error message.

In any case, I ran the very same program from ultimatebootcd without any problems. And yes - it passed both tests, with flying colors. I'm really confused.

The biggest oddity is, like I said, that it works just fine once the computer is already running, no matter how many times I reboot. But after the computer's been off for a while, upon turning it on again, I always have problems.

I already tried reseating all the connections on the drive, but I'll do it again. I'll try out the memory stick thing. I'm fairly sure chkdsk was already run by Tuneup but I'm gonna try it out anyway. Besides, considering I formatted this on Wednesday and it's only gotten worse, I doubt it's a software problem. But you never know.

No, I only noticed that oddity I had already done the tests...I was using the computer and rebooted it to test it, and it passed the tests fine. After it was off for 2-3 hours, there were problems with booting it again.

I'll run them first thing tomorrow morning when I turn on the computer.

Well, this error is at least proof that it has something to do with the drive confirming the details in the minidump. From a fairly fruitless search I think this is a read error, now, that could possibly also relate to the motherboard.

My thoughts on this would be to put the drive in another PC and try to boot from it cold and see what happens. Also check settings in the Bios, make sure it is not set in IDE mode and that RAID is disabled.

You misunderstood my instruction to test the memory. As I said, Memtest can miss minor errors so the best test is to run the PC on just one stick in at a time, not, to run Memtest on one stick at a time.

Ah, I see. My apologies. Well, I'm testing it at the moment and the memories seem fine, the issue is the same.

I think the SATA disk is in IDE mode. But I'm not sure how to change it in the bios. I do have an IDE disk, a slave disk that is. At the start, when I turn on my computer, it seems to auto detect all four drives I have (two HDDs, a CD RW and a DVD RW) as IDE.

Don't want to jump to any immediate conclusions but if you have the SATA drive in IDE mode it may fail when cold if it is not spinning up fast enough, so I've heard. This would explain the error when the drive is cold. ALL Bios versions have a different layout but you should find a section with Peripherals that might have the drive mode options in it.

I forgot in my last post that you have XP. XP has limited support for SATA drives so that is probably why it is running in IDE mode. SATA drivers have to be installed during the installation of XP either with a floppy disc or by slipstreaming the drivers into a copy of your OS disc.

If you change the mode to SATA it will almost definately BSOD at start. The only cure for this is a reinstallation of the OS as that is the only way to get the SATA drivers correctly installed.

This would all explain the boot up problems but not the sudden slow down that you have been experiencing, my only thought is that could just be an intermittent fault on the drive. A slow start when cold may suggest the bearings are tight or the motor simply isn't going fast enough, a small defect that the diagnostics might not pick up on.